The Journey to New Rome
by constelazion
Summary: This story takes place in Camp Half-Blood. Percy has gone missing. Annabeth, Leo, Jason and Piper are preparing for their journey, when a new demigod arrives at Camp - Arabella. Her interesting story and personality helps her make friends with the four, and later on she even develop bigger feelings for one. Join the five demigods on their uneasy journey to the city of New Rome.
1. Arabella I

ARABELLA

She wasn't sure for how long she'd been travelling. Keeping track of time wasn't exactly something she was good at in the first place, and it just wasn't something you'd be doing if you were running across the US from what seemed like immortal giant freaks.  
She was only 13 - an age you'd associate with complaining about homework and going to sleepovers and gossiping about all the stupid people at school, not fighting for your life with some great big bullies who just wouldn't. But surprisingly, this wasn't so, well, unusual or new to her. I mean, sure, she had never fought ugly snake ladies with tree branches at 3am in local parks before, but she'd been through a lot.

She didn't know where she was, or what day it was. She thought she'd seen a sign up saying 'New York' a day back (or was it more?), but she didn't have time to study it further - she was running from a group from what seemed like giant men with bull heads. Arabella thought they looked a lot like minotaurs, a Greek myth she read about a few years back. In fact she'd noticed a lot of these..things she'd been running from looked suspiciously like Greek myths. She'd always had interest towards ancient mythology - Greek and Egyptian. She didn't fancy Roman much, she felt like the lazy Romans just stole the Greeks' stories and renamed the gods (which is basically what happened, right?).

She snapped back to reality and looked around her - she was on a highway, but there was not a single car in sight. The night sky above her was scattered with millions of stars. Strange. She was sure New York was a highly polluted state, and yet the sky had no signs of clouds.

Her peaceful thoughts, not something she'd had since she left home, were suddenly interrupted by a loud lazy grunt. She was used to unexpected attacks. Slowly, she reached for her knife (a rusty old thing she found in a smelly garbage bag back in Ohlo), knowing sudden movements angered the dumb beasts. She spun around and stabbed at the air in front of her, yelling. Except there was nothing there.

"Woah, calm down, girl," an old man's grumpy voice said right next to her.

"What? Where-" she spun around to the source of the voice, meeting face-to-face with a little man with a goatee and a bald spot. She stepped back, aware she probably didn't smell that great. The guy was wearing a bright orange t-shirt with words she couldn't decipher in the dark, worn out jeans and a pair of trainers which looked way too big for him.

"What? Why are you staring? I know I'm handsome, but come on, we need to get you to Camp safe. It's a surprise you're alive, girl, surviving a journey through half the US states alone, chased by monsters? Well, I would but-"

"What? How do you know I've been on the run? Why am I being chased? And who are you? Why are your shoes so big-"

"Gods, monsters sense demigods, and satyrs. Now, do you want to die knowing you'd travelled half the US and got killed by some smelly," he wrinkled his nose, "monster a mile from Camp? No, and I don't want to get sacked my Mr. D. Now let's go."

He turned and stomped away down the highway. The dude was weird alright, but something made Arabella feel safe around him, almost sane. Maybe the fact that this crazy man knew of the things that have been attacking her, something people around her didn't seem to even see, made her feel normal. She wanted to ask him more - gods? Satyrs? She remembered what she'd read about them in books - half-goat, half-man beings, followers of Pan? Weren't they just myths? Well, she knew now monsters were real, why not satyrs? Wait, didn't this old guy basically say-

A low grunt came from behind them, and something told her it wasn't another hopefully harmless guy with big shoes and a large belly. The grunt was followed by a long growl, like one of those huge mastiff dogs would make if you were stupid enough to take their lunch away. She remembered meeting one of these puppies in…Illinois? She turned and lunged.

"Get back!" she managed to yell, whilst avoiding the huge dog's massive teeth. And stabbing at anything fur-covered she could.  
She expected the guy to run, yell, do anything but what he actually did.

"Get back?! Are you stupid, girl?! I was born for this, baby! Oh yeah! DIE!" the crazy guy yelled before smashing into the great wall of fur with a baseball bat Arabella somehow hadn't noticed before.  
She felt confused, and a little impressed - this guy actually seemed to enjoy nearly dying. She lowered her blade, trying to process all her thoughts (and there were many), not realising showing anything near hesitation in front of monsters basically meant death. The hound slashed at her - his teeth sank in her shoulder. She yelped in pain. Something sticky was crawling over the inside of her shirt - unmistakable blood. She tried to focus on the scene in front of her - a very angry short man hitting a much larger dog with a baseball bat, but she felt herself losing consciousness. Her legs felt like jelly, wobbling under her weight. Moments later she was sprawled across the same road on which only minutes before she was admiring the beautiful, terrifying but beautiful world she lived in.


	2. Annabeth I

ANNABETH

It was around 8am when Annabeth's cabinmate, Malcolm, woke her up. She was annoyed - after all everyone in Camp new she went to bed late these days. After all, her boyfriend of a few years had been missing for a few weeks now, and she'd been doing anything that was in her power to find him.

"Annabeth, they've brought another one to Camp," Malcolm's voice was shaky. Annabeth had been in Camp longer than most, and she'd definitely survived the most quests - everyone here saw here as a leader, and angering her wasn't something they had on their list.

"What? Not possible. Why wasn't I informed? Chiron made it pretty clear to me I was to be told if any new campers were to be delivered," she suddenly didn't feel sleepy anymore.

"I-I don't know, Annabeth. She arrived at around 3 in the morning, unconscious. Coach brought her."

"That crazy goat," she sighed, "okay, thanks, Malcolm. Where is she?"

"Big House. They're treating her to some ambrosia and nectar," he was clearly relieved at her change of tone.

Annabeth got dressed and washed up. She was in no hurry - after Percy, her missing boyfriend, made the gods swear on the River Styx to claim all their children and after getting permission to built cabins for the countless minor gods, demigods had been arriving to the Camp like crazy. Why was this one different?

She took that back when she saw their new camper.

The girl lying in bed was, well, beautiful. Annabeth would've had no doubt she was a child of Aphrodite, the gorgeous (yet annoying) goddess of love, if something about the girl in front of her was different. She wasn't like Aphrodite's other children, but on the other hand neither was Piper. But this girl wasn't like any of the half-bloods here.

Her dark hair hung an inch above her shoulders. Annabeth couldn't see her eyes, since they were closed, but she imagined them to be large and brown. The girl looked around 13 or 14.

She turned to face Chiron, the famous centaur who'd trained all the great heroes back in the ancient times, who was given immortality in order to train the demigods of the new generations. "Who is she? Why haven't you told me about her?" Her voice trembled with anger.

"Annabeth, dear, it was late, and we know how tired you are these days," he looked like was about to say more, but decided against it.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow, "So, you found out about her this night? And brought her here in what, two hours?"

Chiron looked away and sighed - nothing could be hid from Annabeth.  
"A pack of wild deer appeared here. They came from the woods. They seemed to be trying to tell us something. Mr. D asked one of the satyrs to translate - turns out they saw a tired girl," he pointed to the bed in which she was lying, "on a highway not far from here. Said she was exhausted from running from monsters through half the US states, unarmed."

"What? Half the US states? Unarmed? Alone? How did she survive? Why didn't any god or goddess tell us about there? And why deer?"

"I don't know, Annabeth. I guess we'll have to wait for her to wake up."  
Annabeth didn't see how that would answer any of her question, but they both glanced silently at the sleeping girl.  
Suddenly she coughed, and her eyes flustered opened. Instead of chocolate brown, her eyes were silver. A piercing silver. Annabeth's heart did a somersault. Those eyes…

"Where am I? Who-who are you? Where's that crazy old man?"  
The girl glanced at Chiron - he was out of his fake wheelchair, so it was clear he was, well, half-man, half-horse. To Annabeth's large surprise, the girl didn't seem to be surprised. No wonder, she thought, didn't this girl go through like 25 states fighting monsters?

"Hi," Annabeth tried to used her calmest voice, which came out as a squeak. Oh boy did she wish Piper was here right now, that girl could do amazing things with her voice.. "I'm Annabeth. I suppose by 'that crazy old man' you mean our very own Coach Hedge. Don't worry, he's fine," she pointed towards the centaur, "this is Chiron, our activities director. You're at Camp now, you're safe."  
The girl didn't seem assured.

"What's your name?" Chiron tried to smile.

After a few moments, the girl spoke. "Arabella."

"Well Arabella, welcome to Camp Half-Blood."

"Half-Blood?"

Oh gods. They always had to be very careful with words when it came to explaining to new campers that they were, well, half Greek god.

"Half-Blood as in…well…the people here are special. You see, it's called Half-Blood because we're all half-bloods here. Demigods. One of our parents is…a god."

"Greek?" Arabella's tone still held the same hint of suspicion as before, but nothing more. Even Chiron was taken aback.

"How did you know, child?"

"The creatures that have been chasing me reminded me of Greek myths I've read before."

There was silence in the room. Annabeth silently admired her. Finally someone who actually read.

Suddenly the girl turned even paler, "but I don't belong here. Both my parents are mortal. I have no godly parent."

Chiron looked sad - it was hard when things like these happened, when you had to explain to the children that one of what they've believed for many years was one of their parents, wasn't in fact their parent at all.

"Arabella, that means either your mother or father aren't your actual parent. I'm sorry, but monsters don't chase regular mortals. And regular mortals cannot survive what you've survived."

Before Arabella could argue back, Annabeth decided to change the subject.

"Tell us your story. Please."

Arabella looked clearly uncomfortable about having to tell these two complete strangers, someone who basically just told her she'd been lied to her whole life, something that has been killing her for months now. But Annabeth's pleading look won her over.

"I ran away from home," she sighed, "I wasn't happy. I realised I only had one life that I knew of - might as well use it to do something I've always wanted to do - have an adventure. Except the first week I was out and free, I was attacked. Monsters that others couldn't see were trying to kill me. I didn't know what to do, where to go. I've been travelling from one state to another aimlessly, trying to get rid of these creatures. Now I'm here."

It was clear she didn't want to talk about it anymore.

Chiron smiled sympathetically at her and turned towards Annabeth, "Take her around. Tell her what's been going on. Her godly parent should claim her tonight at the campfire," he turned to face Arabella, who had a faraway look in her eyes, as if she was seeing memories she was trying so hard to get rid of, "until tonight, my dear friend."


	3. Annabeth II

Annabeth

Annabeth didn't know what to make of the new girl. The way she reacted so calmly when Chiron and her had told one of her parents was a Greek god was, well, strange. But Annabeth wasn;t the type to judge. She knew what the girl must've been through - she herself had travelled across the US for months fighting monsters with her friends Luke and Thalia when she was only 7.

"You ready?" she called. Arabella was changing into the Camp's regular clothing - jeans and an orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt.

"Uh, yeah." Arabella walked out, taking little steps. Annabeth felt that the girl felt a little awkward and uncomfortable wearing these clothes, but she didn't feel offended. She couldn't blame her, after all it was her first day here, right?

"We should get going then. We've got the whole day till dinner, but there are a lot of things you need to know."

They walked out the Big House. A few kids turned to face them. Some gasped. Some just stared. Annabeth forgot that Arabella could attract a lot of unneeded attention right now, being new and, well, gorgeous.

"Did I do something wrong?'' Arabella whispered.

A few Apollo boys smirked.

"No, no. Ignore them. We've got a lot of things we need to discuss."

As they walked towards the cabins heads turned - Aphrodite girls whispered between themselves, staring at the new girl, some Ares boys tried to show off, only the Hypnos kids kept snoring. Annabeth rolled her eyes and stopped at Cabin 1.

"I'm guessing this is Zeus and Hera," Arabella said, looking up at the carvings one the walls.

Annabeth was impressed. "You're absolutely right."

"So are there any Zeus kids here at camp? I'm guessing there are no Hera kids."

Annabeth was seriously impressed. "Yeah, no Hera kids," she wrinkled her nose, unpleasant memories of the goddess flooded her mind, "no wonder. Jason is the only one who lives here. Jason Grace."  
She suddenly found herself telling the girl his story - his quest with Leo and Piper, his abilities, how he was robbed of all his memories, how it turned out he was actually Roman… Arabella was a good listener.

They continued to Cabin 2.

"Poseidon?"

"Yeah," Annabeth said, and suddenly she felt sad again. "Only Percy lives-" she stopped herself. "Only Percy lived here, my boyfriend. He went missing this month."

"Let's move on."

Annabeth was grateful for this girl's understandment. She was starting to like her more and more.

They moved and talked about each cabin and its respective god or goddess all the way until Cabin 8 - a beautiful silver temple-like structure.

"Is this…Artemis?"

"Yes. No one lives here. Only the Hunters are allowed to stay here, if they come visit."

"Artemis's followers, right?"

"Yeah. One of my best friends became their leader a few years ago."  
And suddenly Annabeth found herself telling her all about Thalia and Luke, the war against Kronos, and their plan to go to the Roman camp in the ship Leo was building - Argo II. Something made her trust this girl she'd only known for a few hours.

"Leo's building it all by himself? Is he a son of Hephaestus then?"

"Oh yes. Leo's an amazing mechanic. He was given the gift of fire-" Annabeth suddenly felt guilty for just giving away something Leo had been holding secret from them for so long, something that probably took him a lot to tell his friends. And she'd just let it slip out of her mouth like that. "Sorry, I think it would've been better if he told you that himself."

Arabella laughed, and seeing her smiling face, Annabeth felt like she just got stabbed in the chest. Her face…Where had she seen it before? As much as she enjoyed Arabella's company, Annabeth was beginning to seriously get creeped out. First her eyes, now her smile…

"Uh, so you seem interested in the Argo II," and before Arabella could protest, Annabeth hurried her along to Bunker 9.


End file.
